Formula puts emphasis back on wining, losing

In Year One of college football by computer, the season came down to a basic principle winning and losing.

On a thrilling final day of the regular season, Tennessee won, Kansas State and UCLA lost and a national championship matchup fell nicely into place.

The top-ranked Volunteers (12-0 overall) will play No. 2 Florida State (11-1) in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4, a game the new Bowl Championship Series has designated as the national title showdown.

Florida State got into the game by losing early 24-7 to North Carolina State and then winning 10 in a row and moving ahead of the Bruins and Wildcats in the final BCS standings which used a complicated formula of polls, computers and strength of schedule to determine a 1 vs. 2 matchup.

And when all the new numbers were crunched, it turned out the polls The Associated Press media poll and the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll were as accurate as ever. Both had Tennessee and Florida State ranked 1 and 2, respectively.

''It looks like a situation where Tennessee came in through the front door and we kind of feel like we came in through the back door,'' Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said.

Through all the twists and turns of the polls and BCS standings, some eye-opening results shaped the course of the season: Tennessee beat Florida, Kansas State beat Nebraska, Ohio State beat Michigan and Prairie View A&M won. Finally!

Jeff Hall's 41-yard field goal in overtime gave the Vols a 20-17 victory against over the Gators on Sept. 19, ending a five-game losing streak against Florida and propelling Tennessee to its first perfect season since 1956.

Kansas State ended a 29-game losing streak against Nebraska with a 40-30 victory on Nov. 14, a game in which quarterback Michael Bishop rolled up 440 total yards and K-State fans tore down the goal posts.

Ohio State saw its title hopes disappear with another loss to a team from Michigan, but it wasn't the Wolverines. The Buckeyes were stunned by Michigan State 28-24 on Nov. 17, but two weeks later beat Michigan 31-16 and landed in the Sugar Bowl against Texas A&M.

By stopping a two-point conversion with 34 seconds left, Prairie View A&M ended its NCAA-record 80-game losing streak with a 14-12 victory against Langston on Sept. 26. A few weeks earlier, the Prairie View band got into a fight with the band from Southern and was suspended for two weeks, missing the streak-ending win.

Kansas State (11-1) and Notre Dame (9-2) took the biggest hits in the BCS games, with each team missing out on a $12 million payday with last-game losses.

The Wildcats dropped all the way to the Alamo Bowl after their 36-33 double-OT loss to Texas A&M. The Irish 10-0 losers to USC in their final game ended up in the Gator Bowl.

As usual, players were setting records all over the country, especially Texas tailback Ricky Williams.

Williams came back for a final season and ran away with the Heisman Trophy, breaking Tony Dorsett's career rushing record in the process. He ran for 2,124 yards and 27 touchdowns as the Longhorns went 8-3 under new head coach Mack Brown. Williams has 6,279 career yards.

Also, Brian Shay of Division III Emporia State ended his career with 6,958 yards and 88 TDs (records unequaled in any NCAA division).

Coaching changes were fast and furious once the season ended. Former Notre dame coach Lou Holtz took over at South Carolina, and his son, Skip, left I-AA Connecticut to join him.

Bowden's coaching sons, Tommy and Terry, were in the middle of the coaching carousel. Terry resigned at Auburn in midseason after being told he probably wouldn't return in '99; Tommy Bowden led Tulane to a perfect season and then left for Clemson.

Also, John Robinson took over at UNLV a year after being fired by Southern California. At least 13 schools will open next season with new coaches.

The year began with split national champions. Michigan, led by '97 Heisman winner Charles Woodson, beat Washington State 21-16 in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 and was No. 1 in the AP media poll.

Nebraska, which pounded Tennessee 42-17 in the Orange Bowl in Huskers coach Tom Osborne's final game, moved to No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches' poll.

Michigan lost its chance to repeat early, dropping its first two games to Notre Dame and Syracuse. Eight wins later, the Wolverines had a chance to return to the Rose Bowl, but lost to Ohio State.

Nebraska, under new head coach Frank Solich, started 5-0 before losing at Texas A&M and finishing 9-3 the first time the Huskers had three regular-season losses since 1977.

Ohio State, the preseason No. 1, looked unbeatable through eight games, but a poor fourth quarter allowed the Spartans to pull off the upset.

Along the way, Penn State's Joe Paterno chalked up victory No. 300 in a 48-3 rout of Bowling Green on Sept. 12. After the game, he broke down at midfield as he addressed 96,000 people at Beaver Stadium.

Also in the Big 10, Northwestern was rocked with a sports betting scandal involving several football players on the 1994 team.

As for upsets, perhaps the most surprising was this: Temple 28, Virginia Tech 24. As plays go, perhaps the biggest was Arkansas quarterback Clint Stoerner losing the ball as he tried to regain his balance and Tennessee recovering and scoring in the final seconds to win 28-24.

It also turned into the year of the quarterback seven finished in the top 10 in the Heisman voting.

Kentucky's Tim Couch completed an NCAA-record 400 passes in 553 attempts for 4,275 yards and 36 TDs as the Wildcats went 7-4 and earned a berth in the Outback Bowl against Penn State.

UCLA's Cade McNown threw for a school-record 513 yards and five TDs in the crushing 49-45 loss at Miami on Dec. 5, but also led the Bruins to several last-minute victories during a 20-game winning streak. The all-American threw for 3,130 yards and 23 TDs as UCLA won the Pac-10 title and the right to play Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.

Tulane's Shaun King threw for 3,232 yards and 26 TDs as the Green Wave (11-0) posted a perfect season.

Central Florida's Daunte Culpepper passed for 3,690 yards and 28 TDs, but the Golden Knights (9-2) were unable to make the postseason thanks to losses at Purdue and Auburn.

Syracuse's Donovan McNabb (2,134 yards, 22 TDs) received a standing ovation as he left the Carrier Dome following his final home game a 66-13 victory against Miami that put the Orangemen in the Orange Bowl against Florida.

Also, Louisiana Tech wide receiver Troy Edwards set a record with 1,996 yards and 27 TDs receiving in 12 games.

Attendance was up, too, as 27.7 million people attended I-A games for an average of 42,520 the highest since 1982.

While college football will have to wait until Jan. 4 to crown its I-A champion, other divisions already have winners.

Massachusetts won the I-AA title with a 55-43 victory against Georgia Southern; Northwest Missouri State beat Carson-Newman 24-6 for the Division II championship; and Mount Union won its fourth Division III title with a 44-24 victory against Rowan.